Rationing system — a system of supplying the population with consumer goods under conditions of shortage. Under this system, to buy a product one had to not only pay money for it, but also present a single-use coupon granting the right to purchase it. Ration cards (coupons) set specific monthly per-person consumption limits.
The essence of the coupon system was that to buy a scarce product it was necessary not only to pay money, but also to hand over a special coupon authorizing the purchase of that product.
Coupons for food and some consumer goods were issued at one’s place of registered residence through the housing office. At the workplace (usually through the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for certain food and industrial goods obtained via in-kind exchange between enterprises.
The reason for the emergence of the coupon system was the shortage of certain widely used goods.
The goal of introducing coupons was to provide the population with a minimally guaranteed set of goods. Demand was supposed to decrease, since without a coupon the corresponding goods were effectively not sold in the state retail network. In practice, it was sometimes impossible to use coupons if the relevant goods were not available in shops. Some goods, if they were in surplus, were sold without coupons even though coupons were issued—for example, for salt as well.
Without a coupon, a product could be bought at markets and from speculators.
The assumed consumption norm could differ depending on the status of a locality; for example, when butter rationing was introduced in Chelyabinsk Oblast in 1981, the norm for Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk, and five other large cities was 200 grams per person per month; for some smaller towns it was 150 grams; for most localities it was 100 grams. The fulfillment of coupons with a specific type of product could vary; for example, with a guaranteed norm of 2 kilograms of meat products per person per month, in Chelyabinsk Oblast in 1983 coupons were redeemed as 67% sausage, 23% poultry meat, and 10% beef and pork (mainly for disabled war veterans and diabetics). In 1985 the supply situation for meat products worsened, and coupons were redeemed mostly for cooked sausages, pork, and lean mutton.
Perestroika, on the one hand, partially abolished mandatory state deliveries, and on the other hand eliminated the foreign-trade monopoly, as a result of which exporters and cooperatives accumulated large amounts of money not backed by the available stock of goods. This led to an increase in shortages of certain goods and some expansion of the coupon system; and as shortages grew in 1989–1990, coupons for many food products and some other goods were introduced everywhere (tobacco products, vodka, sausage, soap, tea, grains, salt, sugar, and in some cases, in remote areas, bread, milk, mayonnaise, laundry detergent, women’s underwear, etc.).
Since large and “closed” cities of the USSR were supplied with food better than the provinces, in attempts to stop outsiders from taking scarce goods out (meat, meat and fish products), the leadership of certain cities began to propose introducing coupons for meat. In the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, in connection with the growing food shortage, in some cities and regions of the country (Perm, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Vologda, Zheleznogorsk, and others) attempts were made to regulate consumption by introducing rationing and coupons for certain types of food (meat, meat products, sausage, butter).
The coupon system began to be introduced on a large scale in 1989 and became most widespread in 1990–1991, when the total shortage reached its peak, and products began to disappear both in the meat category and ordinary ones that previously had not been scarce: sugar, grains, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded away from the beginning of 1992 due to price liberalization, which triggered hyperinflation (in 1992 alone prices increased 26-fold) and the spread of free trade. For some goods in certain regions, coupons remained in use longer.